San Rafael PD Apologizes For Transporting Homeless Man To S.F.

BY KATY ST. CLAIR

SAN RAFAEL, CA — San Rafael police have apologized for taking a man experiencing homelessness to San Francisco and dropping him off in a neighborhood there in June, a department spokesperson said Wednesday.

The man was let out of a San Rafael police cruiser on 14th Avenue in the Richmond District. Soon after he was dropped off, someone reported a person in distress and the fire department arrived to provide medical assistance, a fire department spokesperson said. The man was taken to a hospital for treatment.

The event came to light after someone captured the incident on video and released it.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu is investigating the event, according to Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who called the case cruel and an exploitation of city resources.

The San Rafael police actions appear to mimic so-called "patient dumping," in which jurisdictions have been caught busing discharged patients with complex medical needs to other states or counties.

Then-San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a class action lawsuit in 2013 and won against the state of Nevada for loading up at least 24 patients from a state hospital onto a Greyhound bus and transporting them to San Francisco without instructions for their care or medication.

The San Rafael Police Department said it does not have a policy to take people to other jurisdictions and "just leave them without any notification or approval" and that they are taking the case seriously.

Nonetheless, the department regrets that it happened and has opened an investigation into the officers involved, according to department spokesperson Lt. Scott Eberle.

"We would like to apologize to the city and county of San Francisco, specifically the neighborhood where we dropped off this man," said Eberle. "We would also like to apologize to the first responders, police and fire departments who had to deal with this person after we left."

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